Police chief Sam Dotson, who is advocating for drone surveillance by the St. Louis PD

Drone Free St. Louis is launching today to coincide with a national day of protest call "The Day We Fight Back." The national effort aims to end mass surveillance.Drone Free St. Louis seeks to ensure that people are protected from the privacy abuses that may result from government or private use of drones.DroneFreeStL wants to promote individual and collective freedom by:-Stopping the advent of a new era of mass surveillance, which threatens to monitor behavior 24/7 and thereby limit free thought and expression-Opposing the militarization of the police and the city's part in furthering the military-industrial complex.-Ensuring that the St. Louis Police Department and the city of St. Louis allocate resources to improve lives, especially for underserved populations, rather than for technology that will most likely be used against those communities.-Guarantee that there be adequate privacy and safety regulations in place, if such regulation are indeed possible, before consideration of any domestic use of drones for non-policing purposes.

The Draganflyer, a drone already in use for surveillance by PDs elsewhere in the country.